Unlock Your Career Genius: How to Build a Job (and Life) You Love

0:04 Rebecca Griffith is back on the show. Rebecca. Good morning. Always good to see you with your ring light now properly attached. You look great. We like books. For a while there, I wasn't reading as much. I think it's because I wasn't traveling as much. And then since the last time you were on the show, which was just like a week or two ago, I wound up diving into like three different books. It's Feast Your Famine with me. What do you want me to do? I only finished my romance novel. I'm not going to lie. That's all that I have. I'll get to the romance novels. I have not yet gotten to the romance novels. But do you want to talk about your, we're just going to talk about book and what we learned from it so far. Mine is a little mind blowing for me personally.

0:44 Tell me. I want to let you go first though. Well, no, you got to go first because I thought we were talking about our StrengthsFinder. Oh, we can do that. This is related. Okay, I'm ready. Okay. So I am in the middle of listening to which is a little different for me as well. I'm usually a reader, but I'm listening to the six types of working genius. Are you familiar with this book? No, but apparently I need to be. It's wild. Now, of course, like all these books promise to be mind changing. It's going to change your mind. This one is, I think, great in its application and simplicity. So essentially what this guy figured out was he was working for an ad agency and he would do stuff that you did at an ad agency, like creative stuff.

1:27 And he would thrive and he was doing great and everything was blowing up and he found purpose and he would go home and be happy. And then he got promoted, did so well, he got promoted. And that's what happens at work. You get promoted. Yeah. And your job changes because now your job is a boss. Now your job is other people not doing the thing. And he was miserable. And of course, why would you be miserable? You got promoted, you got more money, but that's not what he was good at. So he keeps going. He keeps seesawing these things because, of course, it wasn't that obvious when he did it. Now my light is out. It wasn't that obvious what was going wrong in the moment.

2:08 So he winds up, his wife is having this very clear and candid conversation with him. And she says, you know what you're going to have to do, right? And he's like, what? And she's like, you're going to have to open on your own agency because you're going to need to be the boss of everything. So then you get to do whatever. And that worked. for a while until his staff was almost like, this guy is an a-hole. We don't like him. What's going on? They literally impromptu were in a meeting room in front of a whiteboard and they came up with the six types of working genius. So here's what they are. They're just, so now keep in mind, this isn't like StrengthsFinders. We'll get to StrengthsFinders. Yeah. StrengthsFinders was like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, there's like, And then I paid for the one where it gave me my top five.

3:03 And I'll bring mine up and you'll share yours. This says there are six types of working genius. We all can do all of the tasks except like a stoplight. Two are always green. They give us energy. Two are like yellow competencies. We can do them. They're neither here nor there. They don't light me up, but they don't drain me. And then there's two that drain us. So this guy realized when he was like a regular creative guy at an ad agency, he was doing greens all day. And he was bang, bang, bang. Everything's great. I'm good at it. This goes back to Ica guy. I'm good at it. The world needs it. I can get paid doing it.

3:44 And I love it. Yeah. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. So greens are like Ica guys. Okay. Every once in a while, dude, like some jobs require like you to do some yellow stuff. Yeah. But the idea was he wasn't a bad person or worker. He was doing the wrong work for him. Right. So that made him kind of an a-hole. So they were like, well, then we need to take your red, your frustration. So they're called geniuses, competencies, and frustrations, like a stoplight. Greens are good, yellows, and then reds are soul-sucking. The funny part is... what I would consider soul-sucking, a friend might be like, I love that, right?

4:25 Because if you're like Jimmy, organize a spreadsheet every day, I'd be like, nope, rather rub salt in my eyeballs. Like couldn't do it. But some people love that. So the task is neither good nor bad. It is either a fit or a not fit for you. So you read the book or listen to the book and then you take this test, which I haven't taken yet, but I used AI and I'm sort of taking the test anyway and found out that I've kind of got my order Locked in. So what I want to do for you, cause you know me well enough, I'm going to give you all six of these things and a little description. And then I want you to tell me which ones you think I am. My order is all right. But are you going to do that for me so that I know? Yes. Yes.

5:06 Um, um, what do you think about the book so far? And this idea, like what, like, cause you, you were doing eyebrow raises and stuff like that. Well, so it's funny because I was thinking about a conversation that I had with my boss before I started my business. And it was like that guy, like, you know, where he was like, it's either time to like move on or do something else or like get promoted. And and then the promotion options for me didn't feel like it would be a good fit. And so I actually want to share that conversation that I had with him because it was really helpful. And he basically said, like I said, I've been waiting for the clinical ladder to change.

5:47 I just feel like it's changed, but nothing's changed for me. Like there's nowhere else for me to go. For me, exactly. I'm still here on the clinical ladder. There's nothing else up here. And he kind of said, well, you've been pushing your face against the top of the clinical ladder for years. a real long time. So your choices are to like, he's like, every clinical ladder has a ceiling, like just the way that works. And there are leadership positions and there are, you know, other like research positions, like there are these options, or you can go out into the world and do what you're doing here on a bigger scale. And so that was really the impetus for me to go from can I make a PT in the emergency department here outstanding to, can I put a physical therapist in every emergency department in the United States?

6:40 And so do I work clinically as much as I did before? No, I am now a per diem therapist. But that allows me to not lose those pieces that I loved about what I was doing, but not be constrained by the top of a ladder and not be pushed into the next step, which is maybe people management. And I don't know that that's my strength. Correct. It's a different job. So the best nurse in an emergency room doesn't mean she's going to be the next charge nurse, right? That's the person in charge of the nurse. It does not mean that. It doesn't. So just the best clinician or the one who's been there the longest doesn't mean they're going to be the greatest clinic director.

7:21 No. Reverse. I see academies, associations, businesses... You know who they put in charge of communications and social media? The youngest person because they understand the TikToks. And I'm like, you're doing it wrong. You need someone who knows how to do it and likes doing it because the likes doing it part is going to make them persevere to learn it better. Yeah. right and I was having a conversation with an occupational therapist the other day she went to the big uh aota conference and she said she was really excited about the new president of aota and I'm really hopeful and we got into this conversation about whether the the president of your professional association should be a clinician and clinicians always feel like the person leading them should be a clinician because they want somebody to understand what clinicians go through But to me, the skill set for leading a massive organization and the skill set for being a clinician are completely different.

8:17 Are they both outstanding skill sets? Yes. And there might be some crossover. For sure. Do you want some? I want the best match, right? I want somebody who understands what I do. But I need somebody who knows how to run a massive organization. And I see people complaining about how much... People get paid in different roles and different things. And why does this person get paid this much? And I'm the one seeing the patients. And I'm like, well, because the pricing for this skill set is different than the pricing for this skill set. I'm not saying one is better or not.

8:59 All right, so since I got a little bit of a time crunch. Yeah, sorry. I'm going to give you the definition of each of the six types of working genius. And then, so if you want to take notes, because there's six, I sort of get lost when we start. All right, so they are called, I'll just give you the names first, then I'll give you the definition. They are called wonder, discernment, galvanizing, enablement, tenacity and invention so now I'll go through them in that order and I'll give you a little now now you can sit there and you can check off or be like do a yes no or maybe because you're not gonna have to do like which one are my bests you're doing green yellow red genius uh let's see wonder discernment galvanizing enablement tenacity and invention invention invention So now I'll give you the definition of the description and you can guess which are two Jimmy's two geniuses, competencies, frustrations, green, yellow.

9:57 So wonder sensing this person senses potential or possibility asking big questions about what could be better. Discernment using intuition and instincts to evaluate ideas and solutions. Good judgment. Galvanizing, rallying, inspiring, and pushing people into action around a project or an idea. Enablement, providing support and help to others' ideas and efforts. This person is ready to assist. Tenacity, driving work across the finish line, committed to completing tasks and goals. and invention creating original ideas, solutions, or plans from scratch loves brainstorming, which are Jimmy's geniuses, competencies, frustrations.

10:48 What are your guesses? Okay. I think your geniuses are invention and wonder. Okay. And I would say your yellows are discernment and enablement. Okay. And your red ones are tenacity and galvanizing. I have originally have galvanizing in yellow. Good. That's what I have. So you would change. So why did you switch that? Why did you put galvanizing in red in frustrations for me? I'm curious. Well, because I feel like wonder for sure. I feel like it's a green one for you. So here's what I had. I'll just do it. So yeah, I have invention and wonder. well see those two right so invention originally I was not going to have in your greens oh okay to me that was the definition I was like oh that's definitely jimmy so when I heard the words I was like that's not jimmy but then when you said the definition I was like definitely and then I originally thought discernment would be one of your top ones.

11:46 So I guess maybe if I have to pick like my final answer is that tenacity and discernment are your reds and galvanizing and enablement for your yellows. So I had Will, do you know Will Humphries? Will's a PT at Arizona, similar to me. And he brought this concept to me or he's like a third person to bring this up. And he's like, Jimmy, you're just like me. You're an invention galvanizer. And then as I started taking the test, I'm like, I can do galvanizing. Yes. But I want, I want to be next to the galvanizer. like I'm the robin to the bat to the galvanizer's batman yeah I could do it in a pinch but it's not my it's not the thing I want to be doing the most amount of time no because it takes a lot of energy I'd rather just run into the burning building and be like I'm going instead of hey everybody let's run into the burning building I'm like an invention is your number one that's like your faith and then wonder for sure right so now I'm gonna guess for you okay I'm doing this live okay so let me look at these again so I'm gonna do that I know you had to do it live too, but I'm not good.

12:49 I'm not good at discernment. So I think you, I think you are good at discernment. So I would put discernment at the top. I would put wonder also at the top. So do discernment and wonder for you in your greens. I would do galvanizing and tenacity in your reds frustrations leaving in wait, galvanizing and man, I think you're a yellow invention. I think your invention would be a competency. And now I've got galvanizing enablement. Tenacity is on your bottom. You're like me. I think. Yeah. Yeah.

13:29 And I think you would be a galvanizer in your yellow. You do it, but it wouldn't be your primary because that's a lot of energy, which means enablement would be on the bottom. Am I close? What is discernment again? Read that one again. Discernment is like, do you ever just someone who has like really good taste, you pitch them an idea. And even if they're not in your area of expertise, they're like, hang on, why would that work? And you're like, well, and they're like, I don't think it's there. They're not going to tell you how to fix it. That's different, but they're going to be able to assess like, these are the people who can walk into a room and they're like, needs a cat, needs a couch, needs a rug, needs a plant, but in like any setting in like, like they're good.

14:10 Not you. No, I feel like if I had to pick my top two, it'd be wonder and galvanizing. Oh, okay. Cause I like to think I motivate people. Well, that's good at like seeing people's gifts and helping motivate them towards it. and um so I would pick galvanizer and wonder for my top two and then maybe discernment and invention second and then tenacity and enablement last yeah tenacity is tough but those are the people remember when I did party with a purpose yeah I, it wasn't on purpose, purpose, but Karen Hughes from the Academy of Leadership and Innovation, we sort of, I pitched the idea in a Zoom call and she and I sort of found each other and she was like, and in my guess, she's, I think her number one would be tenacity.

15:05 And I feel like the two of us together have so many good ideas, but we can't get them over the finish line. Correct. So without Karen, that event wouldn't have happened, even though everybody saw me as the person who put it on, because I was the loud one. I was like the one asking the questions. But without a Karen, without a tenacity, and she's probably enablement, without a Karen, that doesn't happen. It's a really great idea that sits on the shelf. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but you have to be paired. And so what's the takeaway from all this? I need a higher tenacity. Well, Will has an organization called Virtual Rockstars where he is like a matchmaking service for virtual assistants. You need to talk to Will.

15:47 Because Will is going to have you take six types of working genius, and he has everybody that works who wants to work for him take it, and he matches the right people. Because now you have a common language. You have a common nomenclature, as the academics would call it. And you're able to say, Jimmy doesn't need to hang out with Will on a regular basis in a good way. The problem would be so many ideas but no execution. But you get Jimmy and Will in a room once a month and we get fifty ideas and then we give it to a discernment person and we go, which are the two that are most likely to succeed? Good. You hand it to a tenacity enablement person and you're like, help them execute. This explains a lot of why the stuff that I do. People have been telling me to launch a course on how to teach podcasters how to podcast for years.

16:30 I could do it. I don't have a tenacity or an enablement person. Yeah, I've got a whole book of things that I want to do. Right? But this explains, but here's the flip side. The tenacity and enablement people are sitting around going, wish I had someone to tee off on a good idea with. Now hiring tenacity. Neither of these, none of these six are better or worse. It's just understanding who you are, what gives you energy. I could go to a conference and talk to people all damn day. I know people who that drains them. Yeah. I get it. Doesn't mean what I do is better. It's just understanding you and like Lego bricks, which ones you should link up with in different situations.

17:13 This is not universal because if it was a brainstorming sesh, a tenacity is annoying because they're like, are we done yet? And I'm like, dude, I don't, I don't know. We're going to go far wide and deep. The discernment people are really annoying during that too. But so they're better and worse in different, they're just better or worse in different. But like, I need you not in the room while I'm doing that because I want to have all the ideas. I don't want to judge the ideas right now. And I don't want to have to explain them yet. Right. And then if it's a bad idea, tell me later. But right now I need to just get the idea out there because maybe the piece of that idea is going to end up being the idea. I call them idea parts. I'll be like, I have an idea part. I don't have a fully formed idea.

17:54 You bring that in my mind to a discernment person. They'll be able to be like, huh? Yeah, you're eighty five percent of the way there. And then if they have a little maybe more enablement in them, they'll be able to go, what if you did that? And you're like, damn, I never would have saw that. Yes. We're better when we understand ourselves and the people on our team. This book is wild. It was eleven dollars on Audible. I don't get a nickel. I was going to do the one you said last week, the Mel Robbins one. But now I'm going to bump this one up the list because this one Mel Robbins is great. She's great. I'm still reading it. And I bought the book. that is sort of how you interact with the world. Mel Robbins' Let Them Theory.

18:35 Yeah. I mean, I read the first two chapters and I'm like, get it. Like, I'm not saying I can't learn more from the book, but I'm pretty sure she's good at explaining and she's going to re-explain the same concept two more times. I'm listening to Six Types of Working Genius and I'm like, hot damn. They've also, now they've switched their business. They are, the guy who invented this is still, I think, an ad agency, but half of their business is going into giant corporations, teaching this and doing workshops. He made his own job. Yeah, I'm even just thinking about like medical teams and how this would be really helpful too. Because how are medical teams usually, what's the hierarchy? Gosh. Degrees, number of years in service, right?

19:18 Whatever, like none of those are working genius. How long you're there? I mean, get it, like seniority. What certification you have. What certifications, what degrees, what your specialty is. But what if the invention guy is the janitor? And I'm not knocking janitors, but I'm just saying we would discount that person's idea based on their status, their perceived status using air quotes. Okay. Wild, right? Yeah. So I have to go to a meeting in three minutes. Yeah. but I wanted to share this with you. I was listening to this book going, Rebecca needs this. Cause you and I are wonder invention sort of people-y and you've come to me. I think I can help other people with their ideas and executions a lot easier than myself, but that's sort of a universal truth anyway.

20:01 But I can see you, you're like, I want to write a book. I'm like, hell yeah. My first instinct is you need someone else to write the book with you. You're the, here's someone put it in this context. Wonder invention people, galvanizers, we're the wow people. But we need to help people. Yes. So I've been called a visionary without a plan. And I will own that. Own it. I will own that. But it's a great vision. So if you're the person who can make the plan, like, you know, I'm open to that. Please. This is if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Is that right? Yeah. Fast, alone, far together. Parting shots for today. This is a truncated episode live stream because I have a meeting to go to.

20:43 It should be my lunch, but I'm doing a meeting. But what would you leave with everybody? Parting shot today. I think my parting shot is just accept who you are and go forward into where your strengths are instead of trying to force yourself to be good at something that you're not and something that doesn't serve you or others and something that you don't enjoy and partner with the right people. I love hanging out with you because we are fun and we do fun things together. We're not going to write a book together. We're not going to run a company together. We shouldn't. No. We shouldn't. I would say the... Success you're seeking is hiding in the work you're not doing. And sometimes, a lot of times, and I'm speaking from myself, it's me.

21:26 Hi, I'm the problem. It's me. Sometimes you are the limiting factor in that. So get out of your own way. And sometimes it's understanding what you're great at, what you're not so great at, and then hiring or partnering for the things you're not great at. Or in this case of Working Genius, the things that you might, you can do, I can do a tenacity task. I've run the Ironman. Same. I can do it, but some tenacity tasks suck the life out of me. I'm just not going to finish them. Yeah. So, all right. That's my parting shot for today. We'll be back next week with longer to dive in with Rebecca Griffith, the EDDPT.